The Preview

Prior to Burningman 2007 I was looking for a travel trailer for use at the festival. I never liked the typical white box type of trailer and I am into "nostalgia-americana" so I naturally found myself looking at Airstream trailers. Not the dull, new ones, but the shiny old ones. After searching for about three months without any luck, I decided to give up on the idea, at least for the time being, and I rented a motorhome from a friend instead. Well, I met up with some very good friends at the Burn and having the motorhome was really a bonus for us all, as it gave us a place to sleep during the day and to stay out of the numerous dust storms. We also had several members of our group that got ill at the event and were able to sleep it off in the rv. After returning, I decided that I was still in the market for a trailer, so I perused Craigslist like an aluminum junkie, looking for a big fixx.

In early October I found a '64 Safari on Craigslist for $6,450.00, which was a bit more than I could afford to spend. My criteria for a trailer was pretty basic, really: I wanted a small (less than 24" long) trailer with air conditioning, a bed and a refrigerator. The driveway to my house was the deciding factor as far as the length. We have a steep and winding one lane road for the last 1/4 mile to our house in Boulder Creek, California. I really didn't think I would be able to get a 22" rig up there without leaving some new trenches in the road. The air conditioning would be necessary for us to survive the next Burn, and the refrigerator is a requirement for keeping the drinks cold, of course, and The bed is just for fun.

I decided to have a look at the Safari, even though the price was out of my range, and it didn't have an air conditioner. I was hoping to use it as a learning experience, to do a thorough inspection and evaluation procedure on it, and hone my knowledge a bit. I met with the owner, I'll call him "Fred Flintstone", and looked at the trailer with him. We discussed the work he had done on the Safari since he bought it: a new axle and tires were the main high points, and we discussed the price a little. I told him I was looking at no more than $5000.00 and he told me he would not go below $5,900.oo, which is about what I expected it to be worth. I was very happy with the experience of meeting and looking over the trailer. I expected that it would sell soon for about $6,000.00 or so, and I told him so, and wished him luck with his sale.

About a week later I got a call from "Fred" saying that he had not sold the Safari yet, and was I still interested? After a couple of more calls we agreed on a price of $5,200.00, as long as my wife, Britt would agree with the value of the trailer. So, the next evening, Monday October 27th, my wife and I went to look at the Safari together. All day I was thinking "I should call Fred and ask him to clean up the inside a little bit and cover the hole where there were some tiles missing from, etc, etc. But I also thought "I should just let this thing happen, or not." so I left it to fate. That evening, when we arrived I noticed that the inside was cleaned up and there was a door mat over the spot where the tiles were missing from. Fred even put some cardboard down for us to cross his wet lawn to the trailer door. Well, when I saw how nice it all looked I knew that we would be bringing it home with us, and I was right! Britt was pleased with the whole package, as was I. We made our exchange and hitched up to our 2006 Toyota Tacoma, and off we went with our new baby!